Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

4 reviews

agavemonster's review

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Brilliant! I loved the motif of women smoking cigarettes, the disruptive class dynamics of the Barbers' introduction into the Wray household, the depiction of postwar politics and society, the sex writing (a notable bravura was the women's abortive makeup sex), the subtle reveal of Frances' relationship with Christina, the slow-slow-slow burn of the whole story. A quarter-star off because a few moments were handled just slightly less delicately than I would have hoped—the violent swerves of Frances' emotions about Lilian, the discussions of pregnancy and miscarriage which struck me as an incorrect attempt at historicization of terminology, and the very ending, which seemed like it didn't know what it wanted to do with itself. But overall fabulously moody, a great capture of the interwar period, and a wonderful page-turning piece of art.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Abortion, Blood, and Infidelity

Minor: War

throwback682's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I read this book based on how much I remembered loving the  same author’s Tipping the Velvet fifteen years ago. I only read a short blurb and didn’t know what the meat of the plot was actually about. I was very surprised.

If you want to know more of the plot, but not major twists or ending:

An older woman and her spinster daughter, living alone after the sons were killed in WWI and the husband died of a heart attack, are financially ruined and have to take in a young married couple as lodgers. The daughter is a lesbian and starts having an affair with the  woman lodger. Then the man lodger dies unexpectedly and that’s where the majority of the tension in the book comes from. So it’s a sapphic love story? But also mostly a murder… not mystery? A crime drama, perhaps.

If you want to know whether it has a happy ending:

Yes? It leaves you hanging a bit but it’s not the tragic ending I feared.

Further ending spoilers:

The male lodge is the only person in the book who dies. No LGBTQ+ deaths.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Infertility, Biphobia, Grief, Confinement, Abortion, War, Vomit, Outing, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Death, Child death, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Murder, Misogyny, Medical content, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Gore, and Blood

There’s talk of a stillbirth. There are pretty graphic descriptions of a medication abortion at home. There is a murder with some grisly description of a head wound. Tons of blood related to both the abortion and the murder. There are several sex scenes between two cis women. It’s indicated that marital rape occurs.

bootsmom3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Alcohol, Homophobia, Sexual content, Death, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Sexism, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Outing, Grief, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, and Murder

Moderate: Miscarriage, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, and Misogyny

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

dan2's review

emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

first half was really good, second half was really boring. and yet i couldn't put i down. but it could have been 200 pages shorter. there was so much character introspection and yet their feelings still seemed to change at random. 

i feel like after the murder it could have been really good but it was just boring. and i knew it would probably end well for the characters, but i feel like it was way too easy for them. they just lied their way out of it with no consequences. and nothing actually happened after the murder. just a lot of investigation and no action.

THAT SAID, i liked it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content